What is for Breakfast?

The Puli Hotel

Nice lobby!

Louis Vuitton store

Peoples Square

The Bund

Off to find some famous Xiao Long Bau…

Mission accomplished, mega dumpling with straw

Queues for the famous dumplings

Back on The Bund

M on The Bund!

Hand warmers on bikes

Dancing

Crazy taxi drivers

Xin Tian Di in the French Concession area

Best dim sum ever? Din Tai Fung

The lovely laneways

Cyclists galore

Wine, espresso and cookies! Doesn’t get much better

Gorgeous flower arrangements in our lobby

Shintori

Rock and Roll salad

Food lift in the background

Lots of tall buildings, we went to the top of that one on the right

Back on The Bund

Jean Georges for set lunch!

Holy moly. Where did the end of the year go? It feels like yesterday that I went back to Perth for the weekend but that was the 1st of October. Having said that it feels like yesterday that we got on a plane and moved to Hong Kong and that is coming up 1 year in January 2011. Hard to believe!

I’ve truly neglected the blog this year. I have to be honest and say I just have no focus when it comes to blogging. It used to be a place to post my recipes and workouts but now I’m not being that creative in the kitchen due to lack of time and eating out A LOT and my workouts have been, well, just a bunch of running. I trained for and ran my first half marathon at the end of November in 2 hours 4 minutes (with a long queue for the portaloo at the 8km mark). I was really happy with my time considering my last month of training was a bit crap. I got a flu and missed 2 long runs but it didn’t seem to matter too much. I was aiming for sub-2 so if you discount the 5ish minutes I was standing in the toilet queue I reckon I was spot on . I’ve now signed up for the China Coast Half in Sai Kung on January 16th. It’s a super hilly course so I need to get my act together and run some hills or else it’s going to be painful! I’ve been trying to keep my fitness up but have only managed 1 long run of 16km since my half and a few 5k’s. Hmmm, need to get cracking there.

So, part of me wants to blog, another part doesn’t. I am SO busy it’s not funny. I’m working full time, spending up to 9 hours a week after work in classes for my course and I don’t get home till 10pm. I’m spending my lunch breaks reading my materials and attempting to make notes. So for now, unfortunately I just don’t have time.

Anyway, I have done some fun things in the last little while. In November I had a work conference in Macau for the weekend. We stayed at the Mandarin Oriental which was joy! We also went to Shanghai for a weekend which was fabulous. I’ll hopefully get some photos up shortly.

We are staying in Hong Kong for Christmas and New Years. We have a bunch of friends staying put so it should be a fun time. Also I am completely addicted to Mad Men now so hopefully I can spend the break catching up on 3 more seasons!

Right now I’m sick as a dog with a flu and ear infection. That makes 3 colds in the last few months. BLAH! Not impressed. I seem to be way more susceptible to colds up here for some reason. Probably because there are always sick people in our office. Grrrr.

Anyway, there’s an update on what is happening if anyone is even still reading LOL!

Just got back from a lovely run up on Bowen Rd. It is SO nice up there in the mornings. I must make more of an effort to get up there rather than go to the dreadmill. So much better. I did the 8km strip in 42 mins and then an extra 2km to get home, mostly down stairs. I wanted to get in 2 laps of Bowen this morning but I just didn’t get up early enough. Oh well. I need to get in 1 more long run before the 28th, and I’ve scheduled it for Sunday afternoon.

I’m off to Macau this morning for a weekend work conference. Check back for some photos on Sunday. Unfortunately, I have to miss my class tonight . It is on fats and vitamins. Pretty bummed about that as having read the materials it seems HARD. Hopefully I can get my head around it from the textbooks… our lecturer really explains a lot more than is covered in the materials while in class, and uses extra examples, so I hate to miss it. Tuesday’s class was really good. We finished up cell metabolism and after a bunch of revision I think I have my head around it. We also covered carbohydrates and protein/amino acids etc.

I can’t lie. It’s tough! In my spare time I am constantly reading my class materials and looking things up on Wikipedia. Ha ha!

Must dash.

YUM! This recipe is moorish!

Inspired by the split pea soup recipe on 101 cookbooks, I used smoked paprika in a basic split pea soup recipe and now I don’t think I’ll ever go back. It really does seem to give the effect of a smoked ham hock! I also added pearl barley because I love it .

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of green split peas
• 1/2 cup of yellow split peas
• 1/2 cup of pearl barley
• 1 large brown onion, finely sliced
• 4 small cloves of garlic, minced
• fresh thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 + cups of water
• 2 large carrots, chopped into small pieces
• 1 medium potato, chopped into small pieces
• 3 t smoked paprika

Directions

Sautee the chopped onion and garlic, add to the water in a large pot along with the rinsed split peas and barley and bring to the boil. Add the carrots, potato, thyme, bay leaves, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. Simmer for at least an hour or until the split peas are cooked. Use a barmix or blender to blend 1/2 the soup so you have a good mix of smooth and chunky!

Serves about 4 large portions.

Tonight we were so full from lunch that we decided just to go for a couple of nice wines at The Upper House hotel. It is one of the best bars in Hong Kong in my opinion. Great service, amazing view and comfy cosy atmosphere. Great people watching too. I had a glass of the Bridgewater Mill Shiraz from the Adelaide Hills and a Zinfandel from California. Yum!

Came home to find my beloved – is this not the most gorgeous cat ever .

On the way home we stopped by a new bar on Hollywood – Republik. The decor is NICE!  

Rose  – what is this chair called?

So lunch at Isola was lovely. Great view. Started with the antipasto buffet – which was delish.

Warm bread

But I totally stuffed up on the main .

Adam got the seafood pasta which was very tasty.

And I chose the pumpkin risotto which was basically inedible for me. It was sweet! No thank you! Plus it was just so much like baby food. I ate about 3 tablespoons and then attacked Adam’s pasta.

Sweet risotto is totally unacceptable if you ask me. Risotto should not be sweet it should be savoury, cheesey, winey and not al dente. This tasted like it was made of Libby’s canned pumpkin. i.e. American pumpkin pie dessert canned pumpkin, with undercooked rice. No nice pieces of roasted pumpkin to be found. Nor any taste of parmesan as advertised. BLAH!

As I really didn’t eat a main course I finished off with some dessert from the buffet – bread and butter pudding – one of my faves. This was so tasty. I would go back to Isola for this alone! Love me some sultanas in custard .

So, second class last night. After a long long day at work suffering through my cold, I had my early mini dinner at my desk, grabbed an espresso from Starbucks on my way and found my class. We change rooms every single class so I have to be careful to check exactly which building and which class room I’m in.

Last night’s class was on Digestion, Absorption, Transportation and Excretion of Nutrients; and Cell Metabolism. I was fine through most of the Digestion parts but the Cell Metabolism has me a bit freaked out! It has been a LONG time since I have done anything to do with science – we are talking 14 years, year 11 Chemistry. And 15 years for any biology and that was limited to a term of year 10 biology! Amazingly, I found myself trying to remember that stuff – cell membranes, yada yada. I have some serious textbook reading to do!!! Luckily, Adam says its all quite easy and straightforward once you read it and become more familiar with the terms etc. and is just a matter of memorising (he topped the state in Human Biology in 1996 so I guess he knows…) Howeverl, when he looked through my course reader, he hadn’t learnt a lot of the stuff we covered last night so I am still scared!

We learnt all about the different parts of the digestive tract and their various functions for digestion and absorption which I found facsinating. The human body really is an amazing thing!

Some interesting anecdotal bits and bobs our lecturer mentioned:

• highest killer in Hong Kong is currently lung cancer but this will be overtaken by colon cancer imminently due to the lack of fibre in the Hong Kong diet and high prevalence of constipation. New statistics are expected to show that fibre intake was greater when last surveyed 14 years ago! 
• the small intestine alone is 300 square metres in surface area – that is 2/3rd of a basketball court.
• childhood obesity is on the rise in Hong Kong and it is predicted that soon 1 in 4 children in Hong Kong will fall into the obese category. [Hello McDonalds, sugary crap and junk!] [Total tangent – but Adam told me the other day that he heard that McDonalds will now be branching out into doing weddings in Hong Kong due to the enormous demand…]
• consistent sleep deprivation has a direct link to weight gain, it can increase appetite.

I went to the doctor yesterday and got some antibiotics so I can knock this cold on the head. I haven’t run for 3 days and now so the stupid cold is seriously putting a dent in my training plan. I am currently contemplating:

• splitting my Saturday long run into 2 x 10km intervals on the treadmill, Sat and Sun

OR

• doing nothing today and hopefully feeling better tomorrow after 2 full days of antibiotics

I slept fine last night but an now super stuffy again so I’m not sure… but I want to move, I hate not exercising.

Other plans for the weekend include a late lunch at Isola today, new Asics (hopefully I can find the new Kayano 17’s!!) and some more errands. I also have to purchase my textbooks.

Waah. I have a bad cold, an ear infection, sore throat and a totally congested head. YUK!

Moving on. I made a lovely dinner last night using this cutie!  

I cut up the gorgeous little pumpkin (skin on) and roasted it for 20 minutes at 250 degrees with a spray of olive oil, salt and pepper.

And on the side we had millet cooked with some curry powder and chilli flakes and steamed broccoli.

So yummy!

I just watched 3 episodes of Jamie’s Food Revolution. Pretty incredible – definitely check it out if you haven’t seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7eaHytpJWQ

Tonight I had my first class of my Advanced Certificate in Nutrition course and it was so exciting to take a class in something I’m actually interested in! It sounds ridiculous to say that, but honestly I don’t think I’ve truly ever had a personal interest in anything I’ve studied. It’s all just been about getting the law degree, getting a job, earning money etc. I guess sometimes you just don’t realise what you enjoy until later in life.

So I’ve got 4 months of classes ahead of me, 6.30pm to 9.30pm Tuesdays and Fridays with 4 Saturday afternoon classes spread over the time. These will be for practical/workshop sessions.

We cover 3 modules:

• Module A – Basic Principles of Nutrients (digestion, absorption, cell metabolism, energy, macronutrients, fats, proteins, carbs, vitamins, minerals, fiber)
• Module B – Applied Nutrition (balanced diets, nutrition in the life cycle – pregnancy, lactation, infancy, adolescence and elderly, sports nutrition, vegetarianism, health foods and vitamin supplementation, food labeling and nutrition policy)
• Module C – Food Microbiology (food preservation, food spoilage, public health aspects of food, micro-organisms in heath and disease control)

As for assessments there are 2 assignments to do worth 15% each and then an exam on the 1st of March 2011 worth 70%. Pretty happy with that – I’m not a huge fan of group work and long written assignments aren’t much fun when you work full time. As long as I keep on top of things during the course I think I should be fine for the exam. And I’ve already made a friend to sit next to . Ironically she is also interested in studying law…

Tonight our class was packed (over 100 people!) and only 2 hours, half of which was spent on the admin side and study pathways/career options and the rest was a brief overview of the topics we’ll cover. From next class we split into 2 groups for the rest of the semester. Great to see that Nutrition is so popular in Hong Kong and there were heaps of men in the class too which I was surprised by (don’t know why?).

I was so interested that our lecturer promoted a predominantly plant-based diet both for dietary (antioxidants for disease prevention) as well as environmental reasons!!

Sweet! Very happy with my decision. Hopefully I can balance it with work and the Friday nights don’t get me down too much.

Unfortunately over the course of the day I’ve got a cold, sore throat, swollen glands and earache. Blah! So I’m taking tomorrow off running and having a sleep in and hopefully I’ll stop it in its tracks. No time for colds with only 26 days till my half mary.

Yesterday’s run went well. I finished the 18km in just under 2 hours, then walked home from Bowen Rd (an extra 2.5km) which was a nice cool down. We ended up having a busy day because it was the Bledisloe Cup yesterday between NZ and Australia at HK Stadium. My work has a box and we got free tickets! It was a fun afternoon and Aussie won so that made for a sweet ending! Afterwards we headed to dinner in Soho with some friends. We went to Jashan, an Indian place on Hollywood Rd, and it was pretty average unfortuntely. It ended up being a pretty early night because I was basically falling asleep (from the run I guess). EVERYONE seemed to be dressed up for Halloween and headed to LKF for the night. It is amazing how much effort people put into their costumes here – good on them! Today we took the ferry to Discovery Bay and had a drink on the waterfront and walked along the beach. It was pretty fun, lots of kids everywhere for Halloween.

Anyway the weekend has ended on a very sad note, I just found out my sister’s cat Ruby who lives with my aunt Patti was run over and died. I’m miserable, I love Ruby .